Children of Grace
by Sikon
Summary: A year has passed since the RDA forces left Pandora. The Omaticaya clan has since found itself a new home, and the time has come for scheduled reinforcements from RDA - however, they never arrived, leading Jake and Neytiri on a quest to investigate why.
1. Dreamcatcher

**Chapter 1**  
**DREAMCATCHER**

Neytiri slowly opened her eyes. At first the scenery was blurry, with only a few distinct spots of light visible on a dull, dirty gray background. However, at the same time as she slowly grew used to the strange body she found herself in, so did her vision clear, letting her take a look around.

Judging by the dusk, it was late evening. She was standing under a gray, foggy sky, on a concrete floor, a single relatively clear spot among piles of trash. _Human trash, _she understood. Dust, plastic bags, bottles, disassembled machinery, broken desks and chairs, discarded papers... Like the kind of waste the Corporation left on Pandora, except here, it seemed right at home.

A narrow path showed itself amid the heaps, and so Neytiri carefully treaded her way with her bare feet. Barely evading a dump-truck carrying more of the trash, she found herself in front of a tall lattice wall with a closed gate, with red signs attached to the other side — she could not see from here what was written on them. Behind was an enormous skyscraper of the same dull gray, shaped like a sharp pyramid — wide at the ground level, pointy at the bottom. The large sign above its front door was all too well-known to Neytiri: the four-circle logo and the dreaded three-letter acronym, "RDA".

"Welcome to Earth," said a female voice behind her. Said in the language of the na'vi, with a human accent. A familiar voice, very familiar. Neytiri turned around, not immediately discerning all features of the figure nearby; but yes, it was undeniably _her_.

"You!" Neytiri made a step back. "Aren't you —"

"Supposed to be dead?" Doctor Grace Augustine, in the human form, slowly approached her, smiling. "And you are supposed to be back on Pandora, with your people. Aren't they wonderful, the innate properties of your world's lifeforms? I only wish I had more time to study them while I could... But I repeat, welcome to Earth, Neytiri te Tskaha Mo'at'ite. Watch and learn from me, like you did once."

Neytiri shuddered, recalling the memories of Grace's school. The avatars... English language... _Sylwanin... No! I don't want to remember._ She stared at Grace anxiously; something seemed wrong about her instantly. And it quickly became clear what: the scientist was as tall as she was. Neytiri looked down at herself, and this only confirmed her suspicions.

She looked like a human. Her hair was still black, still curled and falling below her shoulders; but she could not feel her na'vi her skin color was pinkish-color now, and her hands and feet were human-shaped, although oddly still with four fingers or toes each. She was wearing bulky pajamas, and could not see her face, but she was confident that the rest of her body underwent a similar change of appearance.

She caught her breath, then asked, pointing at the skyscraper, "This is the demon's lair?"

Grace nodded. "This is the heart of the Corporation, my girl. I think you realize now that many of us aren't exactly fond of them." She raised her hand, and all of a sudden the windows of the building lit up, casting light on other, shorter skyscrapers surrounding the RDA headquarters. All connected by catwalks and wires, with monorail tracks running along the streets, resembling an unnecessarily complicated web.

"On Pandora, they were kings — until you threw them away, that is. Here, they are not all-powerful," Grace continued. "There are governments and laws, clashing owners and rivals. But it's very powerful, still. Controlling our transport and food supply, sustaining us — all twenty billion. Communications and networks, computing and exploration... RDA has become the planet's veins and nerves, and eyes and ears, and its hands reaching into space — grabbing the first shiny toys they find, just like infants." She snorted and pointed to the top of the RDA building. "And this, dear, is the brain of the organism called humanity. Its central nervous system. Our Eywa."

Neytiri snorted. _She dares to compare this inhumane force of destruction to the benevolent Goddess? Who does she think she is, anyway? _"If these people tried to play god, they failed," she said aloud, eyeing her surroundings in displeasure.

Grace smiled, taking Neytiri's hand. "I do not think they try to do anything in particular. Just like every neuron does its job to keep the brain running, so do corporations run without anyone, even the bosses, being aware of the entire situation. Even those on top, much less the common people — just like you, adorable na'vi, can live your daily lives without realizing what complex chemical reactions are behind what you call Eywa. Let's take a look at this bakery of decisions." She tugged her arm invitingly, and then —

A massive bulldoser appeared from seemingly out of nowhere, from Neytiri's left outside her field of view, crushing the fence in front of her like ripping through the thinnest web. Looking just like the machine that destroyed the Tree of Voices, it drove straight at Neytiri, knocking her off her feet...

* * *

Neytiri woke up, gasping.

The change of scenery was dazzling at first, and it took her a few seconds to realize that she was dreaming. She shifted in her hammock, casting a quick look at her mother lying in the one next to hers, and stared down at the water. It was night — technically; but it was not quite dark under the shine of that giant blue orb in the sky, which the humans called Polyphemus, reflecting in the uncannily still waters of the lake.

A lot changed in the year that passed since the fall of the Hometree. On the bright side, the "skypeople" were gone — save only a handful, the "good" ones, and Jake — her Jake — was among them. On the downside, she lost her father, many of her friends among the Omaticaya, and her clan was left without a home. By now, at least, they had built a new haven by themselves, in the thick forest on the shore of Lake Kin'eyu, with some dwellings literally atop it, supported by intertwined tree-branches and ropes above the fresh water. Jake and Neytiri's house — if this aggregate of suspended platforms and rope-ladders could be called a house — was located right on top of the middle of the lake, and so were the hammocks where they retreated to rest.

Still, even after such a shake-up, when the Corporation threatened to destroy the na'vi's entire way of life, things remained mostly the same. Disappointingly so, even.

Neytiri's mother, Mo'at, was the tsahik, the spiritual leader. So was her grandmother, and great-grandmother, and so it stretched for generations, as far as she could tell. Neytiri herself was slated for the role since the death of her older sister Sylwanin — then she would be bonded to Tsu'tey, a warrior devoted to traditions to the marrow of his bones, and the cycle would continue. Year after year would the Omaticaya hunt, and live in the wilds, sing of Eywa, and tell tales about their great accomplishments — mostly made up, Neytiri suspected. After all, the old ways are the best, right? Right?..

Then came Jake. She was ready to kill his avatar on the spot, yet something stopped her hand. Was it really appreciation for his strong heart? Or was it pity for this clueless wanderer, stranded with no knowledge of the ways of Pandora? Or the fond memories of Grace and her genuine respect for the na'vi, before the rift between them and RDA widened? Who knows... One thing is certain: he was _different_. Different from the na'vi, yet different also from the other marines, who only had one thing on their minds: destruction.

"Still not sleeping, Stubborn?" asked Mo'at, rolling onto her other side to face her daughter.

"I saw a dream," said Neytiri quietly, not turning her eyes from the water. "Like many of us did recently."

"The human world, dying and grey?"

"That, and... This time, she spoke to me."

Mo'at shifted uncomfortably in her hammock. "She?"

"Grace," explained Neytiri. "About her world, and I thought... Mother, is it possible that something of her mind survived? Within Eywa, I mean. Perhaps this is how she..."

Mo'at shook her head. "Those made one with Eywa do not speak directly to the living. We can only look for signs from our ancestors — in the clouds on the sky, in the plants trembling from wind, in the patterns of leaves under our feet... But not in words. If she spoke, I think this is just your imagination."

"But the dream itself...?"

"Shared dreams are unmistakably a sign from Eywa," said the tsahik. "We should travel to the Tree of Souls and delve into the meaning of this."

Neytiri rolled onto her back, staring at the sky apathetically. "I'll wait for Jake's return, at least."

"Where is he?" Mo'at looked at the empty hammock on the other side of Neytiri's. "With the humans?"

Neytiri nodded. "One of those days for him. Something I should get used to." She tilted her head down, moving her mouth close to the communicator attached to her neck. "Jake? Jake, do you hear me?"

_No response. Knowing him, he probably left it in his bag at the doorstep. Or he may be asleep in Hell's Gate by now._

Jake... such a wild card. He's lovely, yes, he is. Faithful, devoted, and determined. He looks like one of them now, and needs no machine to sustain his new body. But what is he down under the shell, in his own mind? Human, na'vi, or some strange mix of the two? And let's face it, Neytiri thought... he's a marine, a warrior. All he knows is how to fight and kill. Would he be the right person to lead the na'vi out of this... vicious cycle... _yawn..._

* * *

...Now they were walking through a corridor on the top floor of the RDA skyscraper. The lamps on the ceiling were brightly lit, illuminating the pristine walls, sturdy scratchless doors along the way, and soft-looking couches and armchairs. Yet occasionally, through small cracks in the wall, the perceptive Neytiri could see signs of disrepair and negligence on the other side: rooms full of dust, with broken ladders and crumbling furniture. This was not, however, the most puzzling feature of the building.

Apart from them two, there was nobody in sight. Just her and Grace, apparently the only two people in the entire complex. They walked into a wide open hall, displaying a large map of Earth — Neytiri recognized it from Grace's school — and numerous posters full of text in fine print English. A desk in the middle featured a... one of those machines with shining screens, what do they call them... _computer, _but there was nobody operating it.

The most richly-decorated door here bore a golden-colored plate with an inscription:

_CEO  
M. WEGENER_

Neytiri looked away for a moment, then back at the door, only to find out that the text had morphed into fuzzy letters: _Pride._

The sound of an opening elevator prompted her to turn around. "Come in," said Grace softly, pointing at the elevator — good thing, indeed, that Neytiri was human in appearance in the dream, and could fit into it. The glass doors of the elevator closed, carrying the duo down. The floor numbers were passing by them rapidly... 76... 72... 68... — each number morphing into a word in English when it crossed the level of Neytiri's eyes. _Gluttony... Wrath... Vanity... Greed..._

"The Corporation has no idea what it unleashed on itself," said Grace, shaking her head. "Neither that idiot Selfridge, nor his higher-ups back here. The avalanche _will_ come down on them once they have pushed the first stone — serves them right for opening Pandora's box." She turned to Neytiri, studying her puzzled face. "It's a myth. An ancient legend of ours, where our name for your world came from."

The elevator was rapidly approaching the bottom of the building. Suddenly, Grace's clothes changed; her lab coat disappeared, replaced by a human-sized version of the shirt worn by her avatar. "I should warn you, however. Leaving aside the question of my relationship to _that _Grace Augustine, the one you saw dying under the Tree of Souls — a connection that I do not fully understand... This world you see based on her, or should I say mine, memories of Earth. But do not rely on them too much, and take everything you see and hear here with a healthy degree of skepticism."

"Why?" asked Neytiri, touching the wall of the elevator cabin to get a feeling of the unfamiliar texture. 1... 0... It only stopped on the floor below; the doors opened, leading into a pitch black hallway, with only the lighting from inside the elevator showing the plate with the floor number, -1.

Grace turned away and walked into the darkness, stopping briefly to look back at Neytiri and say, "Because nobody can guarantee that these memories are accurate."

The na'vi princess was left alone in her strange human dream body, still unable to see anything beyond the sign, as much as she was used to seeing in the dark back on Pandora. Her vision became blurry again, and just before sight completely failed her, she saw the floor number morph into the English word, _Hope._


	2. Remnants

_In the fictional universe of the Avatar movie and this story, of course, the Avatar movie itself doesn't exist. That's an implicit assumption of fiction, after all. But most of the other things we know and love (such as James Cameron) exist, albeit modified by the lack of Avatar:_

"_Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide" is a serious 22nd century documentary book about the really existing moon of Pandora._

_Sam Worthington was known (barely) for obscure Australian movies and TV series, but gained widespread fame after his starring role in Terminator Salvation._

_Nerdy girls made YouTube videos of themselves painted blue in space suits with tentacles on their heads, instead of holding bows and arrows._

_Without the success of Avatar to spark interest in photorealistic 3D fantasy, Xena: Warrior Princess was never revived with a film and new series, and remained an obscure campy TV show._

_Alice in Wonderland was never made into a Tim Burton film. Lewis Carroll fans never had it that good._

_The major CGI worldbuilding effort that pervaded all of Western culture in the early 21st century was World of Warcraft, despite it never being that good. In 2010, the original game got a new, visually updated expansion pack with a bigger budget, high-tech CGI cinematics, and edgy writing. And it sucked._

_I, the author of this atrocity, existed and wrote a sequel fanfic to Star Wars: KOTOR 2._

* * *

**Chapter 2**  
**REMNANTS**

Morning.

Awakened, Neytiri unwrapped her hammock and jumped onto a thick branch nearby, climbing her way to the edge of the lake over the slanted overgrown tree. The bark and leaves were wet and slippery; apparently it had rained that night.

The rest of the village was still asleep, including Mo'at, lying right there beside her daughter. Probably to the best, Neytiri thought. After all, it was going to be her private meeting... hopefully. Assuming she could get Jake to pay attention to her, rather than to his human friends.

Walking onto a wide branch above a small clearing in the forest, Neytiri whistled, and a few minutes later, her ikran descended from the skies, arching its back invitingly for her to hop on. This beast was not Seze, and Neytiri didn't grow as fond of her new ikran as the one killed protecting the Tree of Souls, but it was sturdy and did its job, and had carried her through many travels in the time since...

Neytiri shuddered, remembering the time she had climbed the mountains again, in search of a replacement for her lost Seze. There were three of them there that time — herself and two young na'vi, eager to prove themselves in the rite of passage, and they fell to their deaths, like Jake almost did back in his time. Their bodies were found later at the bottom of the mountain, splattered masses of blood and bones. _Did they have to die? _Neytiri asked herself, repeatedly. _Did they, really?_

But that was months ago, and for now, her mind was occupied with different matters. _Fly, Lepti, _she thought, connecting her queue to the ikran's. _To the humans. To Hell's Gate!_

* * *

From an ikran's eye view, the square block of rusting metal and deteriorating concrete formerly known as RDA Extra-Solar Colony 01 seemed an unnatural gray patch in the otherwise pristine green-blue pattern of the surrounding wilderness.

From a closer inspection, it was a mess, as Neytiri immediately noticed, having landed in the middle of the now-empty airfield. The former armor bay was graffitied in English with "_BLUESKINS GO TO YOUR TREES"._ The floor was full of cracks, through which grass and saplings have sprouted; the fence was overgrown, and in many spots crumbled; and the buildings were entangled with vines all across their walls, looking deserted and unmaintained now — all except the avatar station and the highest floor of the operations center, where windows were still lit, and two shadows stood behind one of them: one human, one na'vi.

Neytiri walked into the grim round building — the door was wide open — and climbed up the dusty, dimly-lit walks, not without effort, crouching in doorways and carefully stepping on stairs obviously made for smaller feet. As she was reaching the control room, she heard voices, evidently arguing.

"Jake, please understand," said Max, "we can't keep this base up for much longer. Only a skeleton crew, mostly scientists, no supplies, and I don't think the Corporation would be so kind as to donate us a few spare parts..."

"I'm doing what I can," replied Jake. "The tribe has agreed to transfer you and David into your avatars — can't promise you won't get weird looks, after all that has happened, but it's a start. For Norm, it's different... Beyond repair, you say?"

"I'm afraid so," said Norm. "The damage was too extensive, and we can't just grow new ones on a whim. So I'm locked out. There are some unused avatars from those who left, but I don't know if the tree can interface..."

Neytiri walked into the room and sat down with disgust on one of the dusty office chairs, adjusting her hair. Once full of people, the room now had all computers shut down, and the only ones present were Max Patel and Norm Spellman, and her lifemate, Jake Sully himself, towering over them in his Omaticaya attire.

Neytiri smiled brightly at Jake, who noticed her and waved in response. And then... she blinked as memories of her last time here flowed in...

_Jake burst in, slamming open the door, and leapt over the room in fury, crushing the machinery in his way onto the floor. The operators froze in place, staring at him, the embodiment of vengeance itself; before the few guards in the room could react and open fire, they were already pinned down to the floor by the na'vi warriors following Jake._

_Parker Selfridge dropped his golf club and stepped back, looking around in fear, his jaw shaking; but nobody was there to defend him. Jake stood above him, triumphant, pointing his rifle at his former boss' neck. Neytiri, walking behind him, came closer._

"_You-- You cannot kill me!" Parker said, desperately waving his hands, all his usual confidence evaporated. "I gave you all this. That attack was Quaritch's plan, he's dead now, we can come to an understanding! I brought you here, I gave you this body, this new life of yours..."_

"_They gave me this." Jake nodded at Neytiri. "She did. As for you... I won't kill you because I'm tired of killing. You disgust me. Leave this world and never return."_

"...No, air filtering isn't much of a problem," continued Max, "We've reduced it to the minimum, and we have enough masks, power isn't an issue either, the problem is that if something breaks down, we're left helpless. Especially nasty if it's the avatar chambers..."

"We could try looking through the old RDA outposts," said Norm. "The Corporation used to maintain smaller bases all through the land, we should scour them and move everything of worth here."

Jake nodded. "If you plan such an expedition, count me in. But with this settled, I really should return to my people — for now." He looked at Neytiri merrily, winking.

"Jake, wait..." Neytiri said hastily. "There is something I should tell you. The dreams, they have intensified..."

* * *

"So, Doctor Augustine lived after all?" mused Norm, following Jake and Neytiri through the airfield, now wearing a backpack. "In the tree? I do admit there is a possibility that the neural patterns were imprinted into the collective network of the surrounding wildlife quickly enough to save some aspects of the personality from decaying..."

"Could you stop reducing everything to science?" asked Jake, turning back and looking down at him. "Neytiri, could it be... perhaps she's voicing the will of Eywa?"

"This is what Mother thinks," said Neytiri, carefully hopping over the cracks and litter on the floor with her bare feet. "We must travel to the Tree of Souls, together... and hope that the hidden will become clear."

"I'm with you," announced Norm. "Hope you don't mind if I take some samples and measurements along the way."

"On that note," said Jake, continuing to look at Norm, "any signs of reinforcements?"

"None we could detect from Hell's Gate. We're past their scheduled date for the next ISV, but shuttles in the atmosphere would be hard to miss, and we've seen none. I'd like to think the Corporation has left us alone, for now at least..."

* * *

As the three walked to the front gate, however, something strange caught their attention. A lone na'vi woman, wandering erratically just outside the fence, yet looking so unlike her kin that Neytiri rubbed her eyes in disbelief. The stranger was dressed in usual minimalistic na'vi garments, covering only her chest and hips, although hers was covered lime green rather than the traditional darker shades. Beyond that, however, she sported various odds and ends: wide wristbands of the same shade of green, obviously of human-made fabric, a small leather hip-pouch with the RDA logo, and a five-point star drawn on her left shoulder with what looked like, of all things, lipstick.

Norm blinked rapidly, scratching his temple. "Er, you... What brings you here?"

"Nothing brought Um here," explained the strange woman, sporting an absent-minded cheery expression. "Um was told humans live here. Once many, many humans," she waved her arms around the sky, "Flew on birds of metal, lived all over here long time. Only few left now. Um was told she could find them here, and here she is!"

Neytiri looked to her left and right, noticing both Norm and Jake had the same blank, confused looks. "Um? Is it your name? Unusual for a na'vi," she noted, counting the fingers. Four on each hand; not an avatar. By Eywa, who was she?

"Um is Um's name," confirmed the newcomer. "Um was told she should call herself 'I', but Um finds this too confusing. Everyone is 'I', only Um is 'Um'."

For a minute, an uneasy silence ensued.


	3. Sidetracking

_Here's an interesting question: what language do the characters speak in Avatar fics, including this one? So far, I have had no scenes where the characters don't share at least one common language, be it English or Na'vi. If they ever don't, I'll address the topic explicitly._

_On that note, I don't understand the persistent habit of SF writers to spice the speech of aliens speaking English with words from their native language. It would be like if I suddenly started talking to English speakers in a mix of English and Russian for no reason, even when there are English translations of the Russian words._

* * *

**Chapter 3**  
**SIDETRACKING**

Norm gazed upwards. He looked distinctly uncomfortable among the three tall blue figures in front of him, familiar as two of them were. In a breath mask, in a fragile body not fit for the hardships of Pandora, he felt out of place outside the gates.

Meanwhile, Neytiri struggled for words as she kept her eyes focused on Um.

This... freak, an affront to Eywa and the na'vi ways; what did she think she was? Fond of the  
"sky people" she was, this Neytiri could see; but did she honestly expect to find sympathy among her own kind?

"I..." she started indecisively, looking for the least offensive words her brain could suggest. "I have trouble believing your parents would name you 'Um' when you were born."

Not pausing for a second, Um blurted out at rapid-fire pace, "Um believes Um was called 'girl' when she was born."

"Right, uhm, Um..." Jake raised his hand, casting a look at Neytiri that seemed to say _don't complicate matters. _"We are on an... important task here, and it would really help if there were no sudden interruptions. Who sent you here anyway?"

"The Exiles told Um where the last humans live."

At the mention of the word "Exiles", Neytiri shuddered. Jake noticed this and looked at her with concern, bending his tail into a question mark shape. "Who are the Exiles?" he asked.

"The Exiles..." Neytiri squinted her eyes, looking hard-pressed to even mention that word. "We do not talk about them with outsiders."

"Am I an outsider? Or Norm?"

"You are not of this world," protested Neytiri.

"No, but we put a lot of work into it. Besides, how am I supposed to lead a tribe that keeps secrets from me?"

Neytiri rolled her eyes and sighed deeply. "The Exiles are those you turn to when you have nowhere to go. They have their queues severed, or the leaders, at least — from what I heard. Some by accident, some... by worse means. We do not go there."

"The Exiles are good people," said Um. "They provided Um with home, looked after her. But Um is not an Exile, Um has her queue intact. Here!" She waved her 'braid' in her hand; Neytiri cringed.

_What is a fool like her doing here? At a time like this..._

"I don't like it, going as far as hiding it from me," said Jake, straightening his back. "I think we should visit these Exiles after we're done with sorting out your visions, Neytiri. Um, can you show us the way?"

"Neytiri?" Um's eyes widened as she accidentally hit a stick on the ground with her tail, sending it flying towards a nearby tree. "Neytiri the Stubborn? Defender of the Tree of Souls? Then this must be Jakesully of the Jarheads?"

Norm couldn't help but chuckle a bit upon hearing those epithets.

"So you know us?" Neytiri looked at Um with inquisitive, piercing eyes.

"Who doesn't! The Chosen of Eywa are in every tale, all through the forest, wherever Um walked. Um cannot say about the far away lands, but Um thinks it is the same there too. Parents to children, hunters to crafters, word of mouth passes through; everyone tells stories about Jake and Neytiri, some of them surprisingly lustful."

"Word of mouth? I think what you folks need is a good writing system," said Jake, looking unimpressed. "You know, pen and paper? Or I guess even needle and bark would do at this point."

"The na'vi have lived without that for as long as our songs tell," countered Neytiri, speaking, however, in a tone that almost indicated agreement.

"Exactly! It's all the history you've been telling me. The first songs! Ever wondered what happened before them?"

**

* * *

Earth  
San Jose, California, USA  
RDA Office Complex**

It was an office with walls encased in light blue plastic, relatively utilitarian except for a couple of large landscape paintings in glass frames, hanging on the opposite sites of the side walls. Most of the room was occupied by a long rectangular table, also made of glass, with a fancy abstract pattern decorating its edge. With the exception of a closed folder or two, the table seemed devoid of paperwork; it sported a single computer, a photo of a square-faced man with two ambiguously-gendered kids of about eight years old, an empty tea cup, and some discarded juice and chocolate wrappers.

The office, lit with a long white lamp on the ceiling, could be called spacious, if it was not split in half by a partition with an opaque glass door, evidently added to the design as an afterthought. Although the computer was turned on, the room was seemingly unoccupied, with nobody at the black armchair in front of it. The window was obscured almost entirely by white plastic blinds, but the small part that could be seen looked dark, late in the evening.

Suddenly, the heavy front door opened...

"...And stay out!" yelled a woman in a double-breasted brown suit, practically jumping into the office backwards, facing outside it. The door, with a sign saying "CEO: M. Wegener" on its outer side, automatically shut and locked with a beep; the woman turned around, walked towards the armchair and plunged into it tiredly, covering her forehead with her palm.

She was in her early forties, with no wrinkles showing yet on her big-cheeked oval face. Her shoulder-long curly hair looked messy in places, stuck together from sweat. Under her suit she was wearing a light yellow shirt, resembling the color of aged paper.

"Gosh..."

With a sigh, she put on a headset consisting of two earplugs and a small microphone, with a cord extending from its arc part at the back of her head.

"What is this about Negative One again? There were clear instructions! But of course that drunkard just had to screw everything up at the last minute, again. What 'Melissa'? I'm forty-two as Melissa, and I haven't seen such morons before, I swear. The presentation is tomorrow, we need to impress, and knocking things over is really not a good way to achieve that."

Melissa punched the table, lowering her head sufficiently for the other side to hear. "No, I have no more news from Pandora. Superluminal's silent as ever. And I really don't want to be Parker when he finally gets here. If he was in front of me now, I'd tear him apart... Visit Pandora? Are you mad? Waste ten years of my life for a glimpse of that good-for-nothing jungle? Anyway, keep me informed, and try not to slip the schedule _again_."

Melissa pressed a key on her keyboard, and her expression changed instantly. Her wrinkled forehead smoothed out, and her lips curved up in a happy smile.

"Yesss, Sandy? Don't be silly, how could mom forget! Oliver went already, says it's a great movie!"

**

* * *

Pandora  
Hallelujah Mountains – Ground Caves**

Two direhorses — one controlled by Jake and carrying Um, the other with Neytiri and Norm — appeared from behind a corner, coming suddenly to a stop on the slanted rocky ground.

It was quiet here, in the shadow of the floating mountains. Even the trees and vines stood still in the absence of wind, and there was not a single other animal or person in sight.

The four jumped off the beasts — Norm nearly lost balance on his human legs — and looked forward. A narrow, zigzagging road — cobbled perhaps would be too strong a term, but denoted by lines of rocks to each side — led towards the entrance of the Tree cavern somewhat above them. Neytiri looked up; she remembered this road well from the last time, when her defeated, homeless clan had to seek refuge from a seemingly unstoppable force. How times have changed.

_Back then I thought... If we somehow survive this, no human will ever set foot on our land. But..._

Jake, in the meantime, pulled on his backpack and left the direhorses by themselves. He started walking, motioning for the others to follow him...

_Humans and na'vi, na'vi and humans... _Neytiri thought, leaning from foot to foot._ I wish I could understand this better. Jake... he was a human. Perhaps there is still some of it in him now... or perhaps there was always something of a na'vi in him from the beginning, before he ever saw this world and his new body. And Um, on the contrary... what a disgrace! If not for her body, she could pass for a human. Could it be... No, I doubt it._

"Jake, are we really taking Um to the Tree?"

"What's wrong with it?" asked Jake.

"This is our sacred place, the bridge between our people and Eywa. We cannot allow a deviant like her to proceed."

"I don't think Eywa particularly cares about —" started Norm, but Jake, turning back, made him a sign to be silent. Meanwhile, Um, standing beside Norm and not paying attention, was looking curiously at the cliffside to their left, moving her hand along a flat patch of rock.

"All right, enough touching things, let's go," said Norm, stretching his arm all the way up, and grabbed, with effort, Um's wrist. However, as his thumb touched the flat patch —

...With the sound of pistons extracting, a large chunk of rock to their left began to move.

Um, grabbing Norm, jumped instinctively to the right. A roughly round boulder split off from what used to look like a monolithic rock and rolled down the hill, exposing a wide entrance to a dark, seemingly dusty cavern. A puff of smoke, smelling of something burnt, came out of a small hole above the flat patch.

"What the..." Jake whistled, turning back and approaching the new gap. "Did the Corporation leave behind some surprises before pulling out? That'd be like them."

Norm shook his head. "I don't think this is RDA's doing. They wouldn't go to such ridiculous extent to conceal it."

"Nor could the na'vi have done it," said Neytiri. "At least... not those respecting Eywa and the sanctity of the Tree."

Jake boldly stepped into the darkness... and immediately backtracked, coughing into his hand. "Gah... the air is full of dust. Lucky Norm, you have your exopack at least."

Norm opened Jake's backpack and took out a flashlight, lighting the way for the four to proceed and observe the room behind the hidden entrance. "Not much use if we stay here for long, all this dust will settle on the mask... whoa whoa, wait. This doesn't even look human."

The large room was full of decrepit, broken machinery. A complicated web of dusty wires on the ceiling; partially collapsed walls of metal plates; plastic-looking consoles with hexagonal buttons and labels in an unknown script, damaged by stray rocks. Norm advanced towards the farthest wall, focusing the flashlight on a coffin-like block of metal standing away from everything else in the room.

As the four looked at the container from above, Norm gasped, Jake twitched his eyebrow, Neytiri blinked, and Um scratched behind her ear with a puzzled look.

Inside was a humanoid skeleton, somewhere between a human and a na'vi in size.

"So..." Jake folded his arms. "Any ideas, Doctor Only-Their-Deity?"

"I see two possibilities," said Norm, stepping away from the 'coffin'. "Either this is a really elaborate prank by some really bored RDA staff we knew nothing about..."

"Or...?"

"Or an advanced civilization exists, or used to exist, on Pandora that the na'vi know nothing about."


	4. Anomaly

_Some scenes and characters just sort of force themselves in. In all my stories, there have been things I never planned, ones that seemingly wrote themselves — and when I look back, I like the result better than my original plans. This story is no exception._

_And whoa, this chapter ran quite a little longer than I intended..._

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 4**  
**ANOMALY**

**Deduction**

"All right, all right, all right," Norm mumbled, walking around the cave in a circle waving his arms. "Let's get this straight, I told you, I have no idea why the hidden door opened when it did. Maybe because I touched it, maybe... Neytiri, you walked past that cliff many times, didn't you? Did you ever notice anything unusual about it?"

Neytiri shook her head.

"Fine." Norm stopped in the middle of the room, standing with his legs spread and looking up. "Um, what attracted you to that wall?"

Um scratched her temple and leaned on a relatively dust-free portion of the cave wall. "Um does not know exactly. Um was getting bored with the discussion about Eywa, the rock was smooth, so Um thought it was good for leaning."

"Hmm, riiight..." Norm moved his legs together again. "Quite a situation here. Who knows how many more such discoveries we'll make accidentally? Or maybe... maybe not accidentally. Neytiri, I heard you that day once," he wrinkled his forehead, "saying something about... subtle... what was it that you said? Eywa subtle something..."

"Eywa works in subtle ways, I said," reminded Neytiri. _What does this have to do with our discovery?_

"Exactly! So what if... no, no, that's just a hypothesis. If Um was, well, not pointed, but slightly nudged... Or it could be an accident indeed. Right, Neytiri, I think it's time for you to make that contact with Eywa that you planned, while I look at you sitting under the tree and try to make sense out of this new information." He glanced at the strange humanoid skeleton again. "We'll also need to take samples back to Hell's Gate for analysis. The bones, and perhaps some of the machinery, too."

Norm pressed a couple of buttons on his communicator and said into it, "Max, you might want to look at this. Something very important here. Send Dave and Walter here to the mountains, let them do the measurements. I'm sending you the coordinates." He put the device away and turned to Jake and Neytiri, who were eyeing the skeleton from the other side. "Let's go."

Neytiri looked at Um and shook her head slightly, but said nothing. Slowly and silently, the four walked out of the cave and began to climb the narrow road. Um trailed a slight distance behind, curiously turning her head, to the point that she almost slipped on one spot.

Neytiri was the first to reach the stone ring with the Tree of Souls. She stopped in the corner of the entrance, gazing forward with awe. The Tree itself looked much like it did a year ago, sprawling its branches over the far side of this improvised temple, its white threads hanging down, their dim glow drowned by the shine of the daylight sun. And the place was empty. Last time, her people were refugees, hiding here, in the last place where the na'vi could seek shelter. Now, however, they were busy building their new home, and the Tree was not visited so often as it was before the conflict with the sky people. Nobody from the other clans was present either; it was not the customary time for them.

She approached the Tree, softly, carefully treading on the ground. The others stood a small distance away, in the middle of the circle, looking at her; Um with interest, Norm with patience, and Jake with adoration.

The procedure was all too familiar to Neytiri. With her trained hands, she took her queue and moved it to one of the white strands. She was prepared; ready to let her mind wander free, to let its boundaries weaken and bond with Eywa, a slow, slightly numbing sensation of falling through. But instead—

She felt jolted awake. Electric impulses went from the back of her head and down her body, making her limbs twitch. Neytiri tried to turn her head back and jump up from her knees, but felt her muscles failing her, and her eyes blurring. Almost immediately they closed by themselves, as if forced shut. Her thoughts accelerated, as if her brain was trying to process desperately what just happened — before her mind, too, switched off suddenly, and consciousness left her.

Jake blinked and stood puzzled for a moment, seeing Neytiri stop twitching and fall limply onto her knees. "This... this is not how it usually went," he mumbled, walking forward towards her.

Suddenly, her eyes opened again, as rapidly as they closed — but they looked unfocused, as if she was trying to look through her companions rather than at them. She turned her head towards Jake and said in a flat monotone: _The others must come_.

Jake froze in place, only extending his arms towards Neytiri indecisively. "Whuh...?"

_The others must come, _Neytiri repeated without changing her voice in the slightest, like a looping record.

"I..." Jake turned to Norm and Um, looking quite lost. "I don't know what's going on here, but maybe Eywa is speaking through her?"

_The others must come._

"Who are the others, though?" asked Jake.

"Um believes means Um, Jake and Norm," said Um, leaning on Norm's shoulder with her hip.

"Is it true?" asked Jake, looking at Neytiri; but she remained silent.

Norm made a step back, bumping his heel into a stray stone. "In any case, I can't exactly be plugged in. You know, being human. Comes with restrictions."

"No, there is a way." Jake raised his tail into the air, laying his hand on Norm's other shoulder. "There was one with Grace. There was one with me."

* * *

**Submersion**

Neytiri slowly regained her senses.

At first, she did not feel like she had a body at all. A disembodied observer, moving through — what exactly? A substance too dense to be air, yet not enough quite liquid; waves of color and disturbances flew by, and her view was suspended in this sea of morphic nothingness, moved by her will.

Gradually, her features coalesced below what could now be called her eyes, as if shaping out of the strange substance around her. She looked at herself and cringed in disgust. Her body looked human, as it did in her latest dream with Grace; instead of clothes, she was wrapped in tangible forms of the abstract waves flowing around her. And as she looked aside, some of the waves, distant, morphed into faces — some familiar, some not; one among them, though, was all too familiar. She saw a fuzzy, indistinct vision of RDA troopers pointing their rifles at a na'vi girl...

_Sylwanin?_

Despite feeling like she could melt in her surroundings at any moment, Neytiri leapt, with some effort, towards the likeness of her sister. But the image dissolved quickly, and Neytiri found herself struggling to move forward, as if stepping into denser water. She felt being washed downriver, and at least the indistinct images materialized into something concrete: she was now being carried by an actual stream along a stretch of Pandoran jungle. When finally she found strength to swim to a bank and climb out onto solid ground, in front of herself she saw, again, one of the faces that deeply imprinted in her memories.

Miles Quaritch. The vilest, most depraved alien this land has ever known — or at least, as far as Neytiri was aware. And now, somehow alive and apparently not even needing an exopack to breathe, he was running towards her, knife drawn, his already not-so-pretty face twisted in animalistic rage. In the distance among the grass and leaves, for a moment, she noticed an avatar station trailer, exactly like the one Jake's body lay in during the last decisive battle.

Neytiri bent forward and let out a na'vi battle cry, which, however, turned out to sound far less convincing than usual. She tried to block Quaritch, but he easily dropped her onto her back, and she barely dodged his attack when his knife drove into the ground where she just was moments ago. Jumping behind a broad leaf of a riverside plant, Neytiri caught her breath.

She was alone, as far as she could tell, stuck in a body obviously physically weaker than her opponent's. The two advantages na'vi had over humans in battle — size and agility — were gone. All she could do was... run? Or try to use her knowledge of terrain to— Time was running out, however. The colonel ripped the leaf to shreds with his knife and charged at her again.

As Neytiri was frantically considering her options, the entire scenery around her suddenly froze — including Quaritch, stuck floating motionless in midair in his jump. It seemed like the sun dimmed a little as a second figure appeared out of the air behind him, very clearly seen, almost unnaturally so. Wearing her white lab coat, there she calmly stood, the person Neytiri remembered fondly from her past and her dreams: Grace Augustine.

"Ah, hello." Grace moved a cigarette to her mouth thoughtfully, but immediately tossed it away, and it vanished into the air. "How've you been, princess? Because I've been all too bored with being dead. Only thing left to do is building illusions, like of a certain—" Grace said a few words in English that Neytiri didn't understand, but she clearly sounded annoyed, "—thanks to whom I'm stuck in a tree now."

She nudged Quaritch lightly with her knuckle, and he fell onto the ground without changing position, like a statue. "I could spend this time on writing, but no computers, no paper, nothing to take notes on. Just my head. My... virtual head. What could you be doing here, though? A mere communion with Eywa shouldn't have brought you this deep, and... something seems amiss with you, now if only I could point out..."

Neytiri exhaled and stood still, watching the far reaches of the jungle being consumed by the indistinct blur, her and Grace standing on a shrinking patch of tangible ground. Grace approached her and squinted her eyes, mumbling something unintelligible.

"Grace..." Neytiri struggled to pronounce the non-na'vi name, "Are we with Eywa now? Have I died?"

"Not died, I'd be able to tell that. Residual imprints have a distinct pattern. In layperson's terms I suppose it can be called a dream, but... why you?.. Hmm."

"But I saw a dream about you, and you were not surprised to see me," said Neytiri. "You showed me your world — do you not remember that?"

"Wait, what?" Grace took a step back, and the ground under their feet blurred, swallowing Quaritch's motionless body into the soil. "I couldn't have, Eywa is not exactly wireless... unless... Right, that explains it." She stepped towards Neytiri again and knocked on her forehead, turning her ear as if trying to listen to some inaudible noises coming from Neytiri. "A copy. Easy to do when you are software, except I didn't sanction it. Not consciously. Let's see if I can merge memories."

Grace pushed Neytiri down by her shoulders, making her drop onto her knees, and pinched the sides of her neck. Neytiri felt a mild tickling sensation at the back of her head — the spot where her queue was in her na'vi form. She turned aside, trying not to think about the strange process she was being subjected to, but at the instant her head stopped—

"By gosh, Grace, what do you think you're doing?"

It was Norm's voice, shouting from behind her.

**

* * *

Realization**

Grace removed her hands and stepped back again. For a moment, as Neytiri noticed, it seemed like she lost concentration — and the scenery changed abruptly. Now the two of them were standing on the back of an enormous wingless toruk, flying through clouds in violation of all experience and common sense. "Foosh, synchronized..." Grace said wearily, turning towards the source of the exclamation.

Said source consisted of Norm himself, in person, in the same field garb he was at the Tree of Souls, but without his exopack. Next to him stood Jake as he was before replacing his body, with his short haircut and stubble. And finally, the two were accompanied by a pale-skinned girl in a human-sized version of Um's outfit.

Said girl was also the first to break the silence, upon inspecting herself and making a thumbs up gesture. "Ooh, Um is human now. Fun."

"This is hardly what I expected to see," said Jake, making a step towards Grace. "What's going on? Are you the real Doctor Augustine?"

"Interesting question." Grace folded her arms. "Here's one for you then, son: are you the real Jake Sully? What if that man died when his brain was disabled, and you are just a copy built from his memories in the spare body?"

"I... I never thought of it that—" Jake stopped abruptly. "Well... actually I did. And I decided that I'm—"

"...Real enough as far as everyone cares," Grace concluded for him, smiling, and watched Jake nod. "No copy is one hundred percent perfect, unless it's digital, but there is a number of other stimuli that can turn you into a different person. Aging, for instance. Honestly, I think the real reason my mind was redirected here rather than into my avatar was—"

"Redirected here?" Norm interrupted. "Where exactly, here?"

"And I'm glad to see you too, Norm." Grace smiled again. "We haven't seen each other in a year, and the first thing you greet me with is a technical question? But to answer: into this... shared dream, virtual world, whatever term you prefer. I should say, Norm, it feels nice to have all the possibilities I enjoy here, courtesy of... Eywanet, to coin a term. Shame I can't interact with the real world, though, it feels lonely here at times."

The scenery around Grace and the four adventurers kept changing as she was talking, showing fragments of different places in and around Hell's Gate, the former Omaticaya settlement in the now-destroyed Hometree, indiscernible faces, both human and na'vi...

"Have you seen her?" Neytiri asked with a hint of anticipation. "Witnessed the Goddess? Perhaps even conversed..."

"Sorry to disappoint." Grace sighed, moving her eyes away. "It may be hard to swallow, and I think we could keep this for later; all I can say now is that I finally understand what has kept the na'vi unchanging for centuries, and why they're changing now. And they _a__re_changing, subtly but surely, the memories of my copy all but confirm this."

"Changing?" Neytiri looked up and moved her fingers down along her neck. "My people are just how I have known them. Except for..." She cast an annoyed glance at Um, who was listening with her arms crossed behind her back.

"I said subtly — with... rare exceptions, " replied Grace, looking at Um as well. "She is an anomaly as far as I can tell, but if Eywa's hold on you was still as tight as it once was, you wouldn't even get that far."

"Wait... Eywa is leaving us? Abandoning us?" asked Neytiri, sounding worried.

"No, I would just say Eywa's priorities are shifting. Well, I know there are some out there," she moved her eyes to Jake and Norm, "who wish it was true that Eywa planned this entire thing to help her wounded sister Gaia, but frankly, if you're building sand castles, don't— I don't know, myself. Eywa may or may not care about Earth, I can't know. I'm a scientist, I deal with facts, not prophecies or wishful thinking."

She smiled again, with visible sadness this time. Norm was listening intently, Jake looked bored.

"Point is, Eywa has always acted in what looked like the best interests for the world as a whole. And generations after generations, dying na'vi elders were taken to Eywa, and had their minds shared. All seemed well with the world, and life continued without changes, frozen in time. A self-perpetuating cycle, until the humans... until we arrived. And even then, to act against this theat, it took something truly extraordinary, an inflow of completely new data, like nothing seen before."

"Like what, for instance?" asked Norm, apparently the only one left who could follow her train of thought by now. Grace just moved her eyes down, looking at herself, and Norm slapped his forehead. "Of course! That explains everything."

Jake only shrugged. "Explains what?"

"If Eywa is acting upon Grace's memories now..." Norm scratched his chin. "Riiight. I take it this includes your memories of Earth, too?"

"Yes," said Grace, "and I'm not even sure if they're fully accurate now. Haven't been home for so long, I could easily mislead everyone."

"Doctor Augustine, for a couple of words in private, if you will," Norm said in a more formal tone. When he and Grace walked far enough away, leaving Jake, Neytiri and Um stand behind in surprise, he continued. "What are you doing, Grace? Playing along with this 'goddess' thing?"

"Psst, Norm, I'm trying to be diplomatic here. These adorable na'vi could achieve so much in their due time, if only they're given a chance to develop unimpeded. And even if it means letting them have things we got over with. I don't want them to call me a blasphemer and an enemy, nor you. So no word about neural networks and feedback loops, please."

"Grace, just before coming here, we found what looks like remains of an ancient civilization. Seems like some middle ground between humans and na'vi, and looks suspiciously like the avatar chambers. Unknown language."

"Hmm, hmm..." Grace took a deep breath. "If anything, it's just more evidence that the na'vi may not be native to Pandora. We discussed it before, remember? Different biology, four limbs, all too human-like vibes..."

"Should I tell them?"

"I'd rather not. They aren't prepared to accept even a remote possibility. Would be like explaining Copernicus to ancient nomads. Let's not upset their worldview, for now. And... if there are more chambers like you describe hidden around the world, then our best bet are the unclouded na'vi. And by unclouded, I mean with perception unaffected by Eywanet's biases."

Grace turned around and walked back to the three left behind, motioning for Norm to follow. Once Jake, Neytiri, Norm and Um gathered in front of her, she cleared her throat, and the visions around them simply disappeared; they were standing in blank whiteness.

"I have decided," she said softly. "Find the Exiles, learn from them. They may have turned away from Eywa, but believe me: this is in Eywa's best interest."

**

* * *

Commission**

...It was snowing outside.

A large, hairy male hand picked two white dice from an official-looking plastic table and rolled it. They bumped into the wall under the window and rolled back, stopping next to the hand. Two sixes.

"Hmm, hmm. Talk about a promising start of the day," said the owner of the hand, mostly obscured by his office chair, in a voice that sounded deep, pointedly masculine, yet reserved and subdued. He turned to the window and knocked on the table with the fingers of his other hand, looking at the barren mountains covered with a smooth layer of snow.

From what could be seen, his arms were clad in sleeves of green camouflage, the kind found on military uniforms. He was sitting in a small room with walls coated with thick beige paint, a room with nothing in it except for his desk, a pile of papers and parcels in a remote corner, and a computer and a stack of folders on his desk. In general, it cast the impression of having been hastily put together.

Suddenly, the computer screen flashed, displaying a small dark rectangle saying "HPX — VOICE ONLY". The man did not seem surprised; he turned to face the monitor, exposing his ear with a wireless headphone plugged in, and laid his arms comfortably onto the desk.

"Yes, yes, of course," he said without raising his voice, picking his dice and tossing them in his hand idly. "I'm glad we are on one side in this dispute. I'll need to take a closer look at the archives I've just received, but it would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? If I was denied talking to you blue people just on the grounds of being, you know... not blue." He pressed a few keys on the keyboard and added, "I'll speak to you again shortly."

Turning away from the computer again, he detached a radio from his hip and moved it to his unseen face. "Lieutenant, send reinforcements to the perimeter. Johansson's troops can attack us again at any moment."


End file.
